A bit of experimentation

Two or three years ago I asked my wife for a set of prisms for my Xmas present as I have always been fascinated with spectral colours (see my numerous blips with polarised light). However, what I did not realise that in order to get white light to break up into its constitent spectral colours you first needed a very narrow beam of parallel white light which none of your normal light sources will give you. You can, however, use natural light if you restrict it to a very narrow beam and I have on occasions managed to use the prisms in this way. 

I decided yesterday that that it might be worth experimenting with a laser pen as this gives you a narrow beam of parallel light. Unfortunately as it is not white light it will not refract into different spectrum colours.  Still I thought it was quite a nice overall effect when I was able to extract individual shots off a video of my experimentation. I had to use video as the laser pen was hand held so it was impossible to feel any particular image steady.